Community gathers to address concerns over crime in Uniontown
Mark Hofmann/For the Observer-Reporter
Uniontown Police Chief Delbert DeWitt speaks during a Tuesday community listening session to discuss violence in the city.
Mark Hofmann/For the O-R
Pastor Adam Lawson from Fresh Fire Church speaks to the nearly 90 people who attended a listening session at the Uniontown church on Tuesday night to air concerns about violence in the city.
UNIONTOWN – City police Chief Delbert DeWitt has been with the department for more than a decade.
On Tuesday night, he told the nearly 90 people gathered to air their concerns about crime and violence in Uniontown that he’s never seen such community involvement in his time with the department.
“This is how we make a change in this community,” DeWitt told those who came to Fresh Fire Church on Connellsville Street in Uniontown.
Fresh Fire’s pastor, Adam Lawson, organized the listening session after a man was shot and killed on June 6, allegedly by a 14-year-old boy, outside of Calvary United Methodist Church on Clarke Avenue. The two churches are about .2 miles apart.
Three days after the homicide on Clarke Street, police were called to a second shooting death at an Iowa Street apartment in Uniontown. And in March, a man was shot and killed outside of Sails Inn on Gallatin Avenue in the city.
Lawson said he was encouraged by the number of people who showed up Tuesday.
“I think we wouldn’t all be here if we didn’t think there was something in the ways we can work together,” Lawson said at the beginning of the two-hour session, attended by concerned citizens along with city, county, state and other leaders.
Tuesday’s meeting was the start of a regular series of meetings for a newly formed Community Coalition. While the church’s website, freshfirechurch.net, serves as a place to sign up for the coalition, Lawson said it will operate independently of the church and participation is open to anyone.
“I believe together, we can do a whole lot more,” he said.
Residents voiced a number of concerns during the listening session – asking for more police patrols in problem areas, expressing a need for transitional programs for those being released from prison, and looking for a way to encourage more overall community pride.
DeWitt said his department seeks out grant opportunities to purchase equipment like street cameras, or the body cameras they’ll soon receive. He also told those gathered that, while technology can help solve crimes and may act as a deterrent, it won’t instantly fix anything.
“We’re dealing with a long-term project, here,” Dewitt said. “We’re not going to turn a light switch off, and the problem will go away. This is a generational problem we have to deal with.”
Mike Aubele and Jack W. Connor, the Republican and Democratic nominees for the county district attorney’s post, attended Tuesday, each signaling they believe something has to be done to curb crime.
Aubele said he and his wife adopted a child who was born early, and addicted to heroin.
“It’s extremely personal to me to get a hold of this,” he said.
And, Connor said he’s listened to a litany of residents’ concerns about crime while on the campaign trail.
“I’ve done defense work for 37 years, and I’ve seen the holes in the process,” he said.
Uniontown Mayor Bill Gerke and Councilman the Rev. Vincent Winfrey refuted claims that the city’s East End, where the Clarke Street shooting occurred, was being ignored.
“It’s just not just the East End, it’s not West End, South End, North End – it’s the city of Uniontown we’re all concerned about,” Gerke said. “And we want to do the best for our city, not just one part of the community.”
The Rev. Terry Vassar, president of the Fayette County NAACP and co-founder of the youth-focused One Voice One Community nonprofit, called for those gathered to look for common ground, and to work together to find solutions.
“A lot of us aren’t seeing (things) from the perspective of others,” said Vassar. “We are one body, we are one body in Christ and one body in man, but even greater, we’re one community.”